L&L on the Road: CENTS brings optimism for 2011

COLUMBUS, Ohio – CENTS 2011 brought optimism about the industry for the coming year. Suppliers and manufacturers said customers are asking about new products again, while landscape contractors said they have every reason to believe business will pick up come spring.

“This year is a lot more upbeat than last year was; we’ve already seen a bit more activity around the show this year,” says Casey Fischer, an Ohio CAT salesman. “Guys, when they’re actually talking about buying things, that’s a good thing. Last year was a lot different. Guys were just wondering how they were going to keep the doors open. So this year to see them thinking about making purchases and updating equipment is a good sign.”

Ken Free, sales manager for Salem, Ore.-based JLPN, waters seedlings at CENTS 2011.CENTS (which stands for Central Environmental Nursery Trade Show) is hosted by the Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association in conjunction with The Ohio State University Nursery Short Course, which is the educational arm of the event. The event took place at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in late January. About 8,000 people attended CENTS, which was comparable to previous years. And 811 booths were sold and 429 companies exhibited, according to ONLA.

During the three-day event, attendees from all aspects of the green industry took part in networking, viewing new products on the show floor and listening to educational seminars and earning credits in topics such as landscape contracting, pest management, plants, nursery/grower, urban forestry and retail.

The highlights from this year’s show included:

FILLING THE GAP.
Many times, there can be a disconnect between what the designer dreamt up and what the maintenance contractor ends up taking care of, says Dr. Robert E. Schutzki, associate professor in the Department of Horticulture at Michigan State University. In reality, for the best results, there needs to be a synergistic relatioship among the designer, installer and maintenance contractor.

The thought process needs to be, “We’re all in this together,” he says.

His talk “Design Maintenance Connection” gave advice on how to eliminate that disconnect.

One common area where problems occur is in the beginning stages of the plan and site review, he says. Perhaps the designer picked plants that were destined to fail because of information he or she didn’t know. Sometimes problems pop up because the contractor installing the landscaping didn’t pay close enough attention to the design plan or they misread the grade needed for planting material and mulching.

The key to making sure the client is satisfied, not only with the design and installation process but for years to come, is communication. That communication starts with the design intent.

“The design intent statement is two or three paragraphs and each paragraph has two or three sentences of what your intent is as the designer,” Schutzki says. It gives the installer and maintenance contractor a better understanding of the site plan, orientation and position of landscape features, type and size of material used and guides for on-site adjustment.

A final element that can help is creating a review process, a checklist of sorts, for when the project is complete. Take 10-15 minutes to go over plant alignment, plant quality, mulching, irrigation and clean up.

Schutzki says a contractor who was having problems with beds and plant materials once the warranty was up saved $90,000 in the first year he put in a 10-minute review system.

CUSTOMER REFERRALS.
The big lie in business is that companies are able to grow 100 percent by referrals, says Jeffrey Scott, who built his family’s Connecticut-based contracting business from $5 million to $10 million before becoming an industry consultant.

“There is a name for companies who grow only by referrals,” Scott says. “Small.”
That doesn’t mean you can’t make referrals a large part of your growing strategy, he says. In his talk “Create a Stream of Non-Stop Referrals,” Scott went over seven referral marketing mistakes to avoid.

A common mistakes is not measuring how you’re gaining new clients. Scott recommended going back two years and looking at the data to see how you were gaining them. If companies don’t manage their client information, they won’t know how to grow.

“When you go to collect data, you’ll be surprised to find out where your business is coming from,” he says.

Another suggestion was identifying what drives the business and having a direct, to-the-point description of the company. If people can’t describe your business, they can’t refer your company to others, Scott says.

Finally, multiple mistakes occur because businesses are not out in the community or networking properly. Scott recommends attending networking events where 80 percent of the people are clients, potential clients or influencers. Also, do community service projects and alert clients, media, trade associations and other influencers before and after.

The point is to make sure your company name is being heard.

“There are companies out there who know you do good work, there are people out there who know you do good work, and you just think they’re going to refer you?” Scott says “You need to stay in front of them.”

Ron Fridley of Nationwide and Byron Baxter of Dendrological Sales talk about different varieties of plants and flooding that took place in Southern Ohio in 2010.TREE AND SHRUB DISEASES.
During a foundations and fundamentals course on common tree and shrub diseases, Jim Chatfield an associate professor and extension specialist at The Ohio State University Extension Center in Wooster, Ohio, broke down how to diagnose signs and systems of ailing plants from infectious diseases.

Properly diagnosing the problem is the first part of the battle, he says.

“As you start thinking about control, you need to know what causes (the disease),” says Chatfield, adding you don’t want to spray an insecticide when a fungicide is needed.

Among the infectious diseases he spoke about were anthracnose, powdery mildew and verticillium wilt.

With anthracnose, the fungal disease can get into the twigs and then spread through the foliage, causing blotchiness along the veins, Chatfield says.

Powdery mildew is “usually not critical to plant health,” but can be unsightly, he says. And the disease affects plants differently. One symptom is that the tissue becomes desiccated and a grayish residue forms on the leaves or even the stems. A misnomer symptom with powdery mildew is yellowish spots that form on the front of leaves, but when turning the leaf over, the fungus is usually growing on the underside.

Verticillium wilt can be found on maple trees and smoke bushes. The disease goes through the root system, eventually causing a vascular wilt and scorched-looking leaves, Chatfield says. Once the symptoms are visible, it’s usually too late to save the plant.

For help identifying tree and shrub diseases, he recommended the Buckeye Yard and Garden onLine at http://bygl.osu.edu.

The author is associate editor at Lawn & Landscape. She can be reached at clawell@gie.net.